Builder renovates three more historic properties in ‘a cool part of Wichita’

Builder Tom George, who converted the former Kellogg and Sunnyside elementary schools into apartments, has finished another renovation project in the downtown area and is working on his next.

This one is two 1928 apartment buildings at 220 and 224 S. Kansas Ave., which are just south of Tanya’s Soup Kitchen at Douglas and Kansas.

“The brick work was beautiful,” George said. “The floors are just beautiful. I hate to say it, but they don’t make ’em like that anymore.”

He’s calling the properties the Kansas Flats.

George studied the history of the building but couldn’t find the original name of the apartments.

“We would have used it.”

He also got them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Each building has four 800-square-foot units that lease for $850.

“It’s really hard to get a two-bedroom downtown and not pay $1,000,” George said. “It’s ridiculous.”

There are new windows and appliances along with updated kitchens and bathrooms.

“They’ve got a really good floor design,” George said.

There are also basements for storage and washers and dryers.

“It’s a brand-new apartment, and you can still afford the rent in a neat old building,” George said.

Three doors down, there’s another fourplex that George is in the midst of renovating. Once again, he said he’s struck by the property’s brick.

“Just the quality of today’s brick compared to this brick, it’s just unbelievable,” he said. “These bricks, you could slam them with a sledgehammer, and they don’t break.”

In addition to his renovation projects, George recently opened eight apartments made from shipping containers at 430 S. Pattie, which are across from his Kellogg apartments.

The Stack Container development is about a half mile southwest of the Kansas Flats.

That general vicinity from Douglas to Kellogg is an area that George likes to focus on.

“That part of Douglas and downtown is really special. A lot of trees. . . . It’s a cool part of Wichita.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 2:33 PM.